I'm Annie, a 23 year old from London with an avid interest in fitness, nutrition, health and wellbeing. About 6 years ago I began to notice that I was suffering from more and more digestive problems. I was drained of energy and felt (and looked) awful. At the worst point, I found myself in a vicious cycle of having to nap for 2 hours to sustain just a single hour of energy, leading me to spend days on end almost bed bound. Fortunately, unlike others I have met, for me this only lasted for a few weeks but for someone that struggles to sit still for 5 minutes it was incredibly frustrating. I put most of the problems down to gluten and tried my best to cut it out, relying on substitutes (packed with all sorts of nasty ingredients) to soothe hangover carb cravings. Unsurprisingly, little changed. Despite always having a keen interest in fitness and healthy eating, my university habits did nothing but contribute to my growing need for a lifestyle overhaul.
In September 2013 I decided that enough was enough. Fed up of my dull and bloated appearance, constant stomach aches and entire lack of energy, I embarked upon a lifestyle overhaul. I started by taking a fitness led approach - having never been a big meat eater and toying with vegetarianism over the years, I began including fish and lean meat (turkey, turkey and more turkey) to get more protein into my diet to support my new found love of lifting weights - they really don't make girls bulky! I cut out all dairy (by this point I had realised that this was causing a large amount of my symptoms) and ate a very strict and 'clean' diet, shedding 5% body fat and 6kg in about 3 months. I had more and more energy, began looking less like death personified and started to feel a LOT better in myself. However, the more and more I learnt, the more I became interested in a more plant-based diet and I seemed to naturally progress to eliminating meat and fish too.
Now that I had recovered my energy and improved the way I felt about myself, fitness goals were just an added bonus. I realised that I just wanted to be healthy and happy by sustaining a positive mentality, a fit and healthy body and of course enjoying amazing food too. Mind, Body, Bowl brings all of these together in once place - my obsession with food (cooking it, eating it and thinking about it takes up at least 80% of my day), my growing interest in and understanding of nutrition, my love of exercise and fitness, and my new found positive outlook on life.
I really don't like labels but if I was to attach all the labels associated to my food habits in one sentence it would look something like this:
I maintain a plant-based, gluten-free, dairy-free, predominantly vegan and refined sugar-free diet as part of my lifestyle and journey towards health and happiness.
I have become a self-confessed food hippy, totally and utterly in love with filling my body with goodness and enjoying the energy that comes with it.
I believe that health and happiness are the most important parts of our lives and that our lifestyles provide us with the foundations and energy to live a happy, healthy life! Nutrition should be sustainable and the most important thing is to listen to your body. We are all different and what works for me may not work for you but this is how I am doing it and I hope you find it helpful in your own journey towards health and happiness!
With love,
Annie x
P.S. I would love to hear from you so please do get in touch...
P.S. I would love to hear from you so please do get in touch...
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